exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of humanity

Psicología Política, Nº 30, 2005, 41-56
EXCLUSION OF ETHNIC GROUPS FROM THE REALM OF HUMANITY
Prejudice against the Gypsies in Britain and in Romania
Afrodita Marcu - Xenia Chryssochoou
University of Surrey, Panteion University
RESUMEN
ABSTRACT
Se analiza el prejuicio contra minorías ét- Prejudice against ethnic minorities is invesnicas como el establecimiento de la diferen- tigated not only as the establishment of
cia entre los grupos sociales en dimensiones difference between social groups on valued
valoradas y también como la negación de dimensions but also as the denial of similas semejanzas evitando la inclusión de en- larities that would prevent the inclusion of
dogrupos y exogrupos en la categoría supe- both ingroups and outgroups in the surior de seres humanos. Esta investigación perordinate category of human-beings. The
analiza en la minoría gitana los dos concep- present study sought to explore the two
tos que se utilizan para describir el fenóme- concepts that are advanced to describe the
no de la deshumanización de grupos ajenos: phenomenon of dehumanisation of outsu ontologización e infrahumanización. Se groups: their ontologisation and their infrapidió a los británicos y rumanos de la mues- humanisation in relation to the Gypsy mitra que clasificaran a su grupo nacional y a nority. British and Romanian participants
los gitanos a partir de las características were asked to rate their national ingroup
juzgadas típicamente humanas y típicamen- and the Gypsies using characteristics judged
te animales según la literatura teórica de la typically human and typically animal foontologización e infrahumanización. Los llowing the ontologisation and infrahumaniresultados indicaron que la ontologización sation literature. The results indicated that
de los gitanos ocurre en ambas muestras the ontologisation of the Gypsies occurs in
nacionales mientras que su infrahumani- both national samples whereas their infrazation solo ocurre en los participantes britá- humanisation is only verified for the British
nicos. Se analizan las implicaciones de los participants. The implications of these finresultados desde la perspectiva de infrahu- dings are discussed from the perspectives of
manización y ontologisation.
the infrahumanisation and ontologisation.
Key words: ontologisation, infrahumanisation, ingroups and outgroups, Gypsy
Social psychology has often focused on the study of prejudice and
stereotypes as phenomena of inter-group relations and studied their behavioural expression in terms of evaluative judgements of the out-group
and/or in terms of unequal distribution of material and symbolic resources
(Brown, 1995, 2000; Doise, 1978; Sherif, 1966; Tajfel 1974, 1981). Recent
studies suggest that ethnic prejudice may go beyond mere evaluative judgments, and may include semantic-anthropological considerations. While
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Psicología Política, Nº 30, Mayo 2005
evaluative discrimination consists of judging out-groups in terms of positive versus negative attributes in order to confirm a difference between ingroup and out-group on valued dimensions, semantic-anthropological discrimination involves judging out-groups in terms of natural and cultural
characteristics (Moscovici and Pérez, 1997; Pérez, Chulvi and Alonso,
2001).
Moscovici (1968) put forward the idea that nature and culture constitute dimensions along which representations of human groups are organised. It is important therefore to look closer at these two concepts. Culture
means “civilisation”, “human development”, “a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development” (Williams, 1988), which “begins
at the point at which humans surpass whatever is simply given in their natural inheritance” (Edgar and Sedgwick, 1999), while Nature is “the primitive condition before human society”, “plants and creatures other than
man”, (Williams, 1988), “the material that is subject to [a cultural] process
of transformation, but it is not properly part of human society until it has
been so transformed” (Edgar and Sedgwick, 1999: 256). Etymologically
speaking, culture originally meant the cultivation of the land, as in agriculture, and marked humans’ transition from a hunter-gathering state to a sedentary form of social organisation. Thus, culture was initially “a thoroughly material process, which was then metaphorically transposed to affairs of
the spirit”, and its semantic origins indicate humanity’s “historic shift from
rural to urban existence” (Eagleton, 2000). By contrast, nature is often defined as what existed prior to culture or simply outside human society (Edgar and Sedgwick, 1999), often viewed as inferior to culture and as something that needs to be dominated and controlled. In Western discourse, Nature is commonly seen as the material necessary for the production of Culture. Strathern points out that often the dichotomy culture / nature revolves
around the idea of domination and control, where “the wild is transformed
into the domestic and the domestic contains within it primitive elements of
its pre-domesticated nature” (1980: 181). This view of culture as dependent
on the exploitation and transformation of nature is also present with Edgar
and Sedgwick (1999) who argue that the cultivation of the natural world
and the human ability to construct and build are fundamental elements of
culture.
Culture is also often taken to mean civilisation, an achieved state or
condition of organised social life, with emphasis on secular and progressive
human self-development (Williams, 1988). Often, civilisation is contrasted
with savagery and barbarism, where, etymologically speaking, civilisation
(from the Latin civis, a townsperson) means the culture of those who are
Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of...
43
settled and is set in contrast with the culture of the moving hordes (from the
Old Turkic ordu), who are viewed as a threat1. Following the meaning of
civilisation, different cultures leave open the possibility of conflict as in
Huntington’s (1996) thesis about the “clash of civilisations”, for some cultures will be perceived as more or less “civilised” than others.
Culture has often been depicted as being in a relationship of domination
of Nature: as Donna Haraway highlights, “nature is only the raw material of
nature appropriated, preserved, enslaved, exalted or otherwise made flexible for disposal by culture in the logic of capitalist colonialism” (1989: 13).
Donna Haraway (1991) has illustrated the power imbalance between
humans and animals by showing how primatology and animal studies in
general have been used as a tool to justify “domination based in differences
seen as natural, given, inescapable, and therefore moral” (p.8). Interests of
domination have given animals “a special status as natural objects that can
show people their origin, and therefore their pre-rational, pre-management,
pre-cultural essence”.
Given this view of Culture as an agentic and engaged control of Nature,
one might inquire whether culture as a “historically created system of meaning and significance” or as “a system of beliefs and practices in terms of
which a group of human beings understand, regulate and structure their
individual and collective lives” (Parekh, 2000: 143) would also encapsulate
the idea of domination and transformation of nature. Following a parallelism, it could be argued that just as culture, as a superordinate category,
implies the idea of instrumental reason and control of nature, so human
culture, in the sense of beliefs, symbolizations, norms and values, would
imply the idea of control of human instinct, of surpassing whatever is given
in humans’ natural inheritance. Thus, enculturation (the social process by
which culture is learned and used by a human infant) would involve a polishing of human nature, a sort of domestication at the human level, whereby humans learn to dominate their instinct, express culturally accepted
emotions and engage in socially sanctioned behaviours.
Following this line of thought, the “essence” of humanity in the Western world is based on the passage from a state of nature to a state of culture,
from wilderness and nomadic group behaviour to civilisation and sedentary
life where one’s individuality is expressed and fulfilled. Representations of
social groups might, therefore, be organised around the idea that some
groups are closer to “fulfil their human potential” in the sense that they
have domesticated their natural aspects and have achieved the civilised
state. Indeed, Pérez and his colleagues (Pérez, Chulvi and Alonso 2001)
suggested that when an ethnic minority constantly resists the majority’s
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Psicología Política, Nº 30, Mayo 2005
strategies of social integration, the majority attributes the minority an essence different from the human one. They focused on the Gypsy minority
in Spain and found that Gypsies were attributed more natural (or animallike) characteristics in the condition where participants were informed that
Gypsies had not socially integrated despite the majority’s multiple efforts
to convert them. This attribution of more animal-like characteristics serves
as an explanation of why the minority has resisted social pressure to integrate and has remained at the fringes of society. The majority attributes the
absence of integration to the different essence of the minority, to their inability to leave their animal condition and creates a new ontology for them,
excluding them from humanity. To describe this process the concept of
ontologisation has been put forward (Moscovici and Pérez 1997, Pérez,
Moscovici and Chulvi, 2002). Ontologisation consists of an operation of
classification by which one minority can be represented not only as an outgroup but can also be represented as outside the social map of human identity. This exclusion of the realm of humanity goes beyond ideological prejudice (involving evaluation) and consists of a categorical prejudice (involving the essentialisation of groups) that serves to create social distance
between groups or to deny similarities between majorities and minorities
(Moscovici and Pérez 1997).
Recently, Chulvi and Pérez (2002) studied the social representations of
ethnic minorities, including Gypsies, and found that categorising them in
terms of nature as opposed to culture was more salient than evaluating
them in terms of positive and negative attributes. They found that humans
were characterised by reason, culture and autonomy, whereas animals were
represented by instinct, nature, and emotional dependence, with Gypsies
and other ethnic minorities being ascribed about a quarter of the positive
animal attributes. Chulvi and Pérez found that the typical traits assigned to
Gypsies suggested their having an essence different from that of humans,
which functioned to explain why they have maintained their specific lifestyle despite centuries of forced cultural assimilation. The study showed that
Gypsies were represented as antisocial nomads with a questionable morality and a preference for isolation within a self-enclosed universe beyond the
realm of the human species.
The process of ontologisation has obvious consequences for current
multicultural societies, since the non-assimilation of minorities might throw
them outside the boundaries of humanity. For example, Verkuyten (2001)
analysed the rhetorical strategies used by majority members in the Netherlands to construct the behaviour and the practices of immigrants and ethnic
minorities as deviant from the norm (abnormal). One of the strategies used
Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of...
45
was to present extreme cases of behaviour or violation of social norms and
basic values to justify judgements of abnormality and accuse the minority.
More importantly, majority members rejected the argument of cultural diversity to explain differences in the behaviour of ethnic minorities. Such an
argument would have placed both groups (majority and minority) in an
intergroup perspective of evaluative differences. Instead people categorised
minorities outside the boundaries of normal human behaviour (Chryssochoou 2004). Excluding the other from the realm of humanity may have
disturbing consequences: Tajfel (1981, 1984) argued that dehumanising the
out-groups can serve to exterminate them, as in the case of the Nazi Germany.
In another line of research, Leyens and his colleagues (Leyens et al.
2000, 2001) thought that if people have a tendency to essentialise social
groups they might do so not only at the level of cognitive abilities but also
in terms of their ability to feel certain emotions. They distinguished between primary emotions such as fear or disgust which are considered in
common sense to be common to both animals and humans, and secondary
emotions such as pride or remorse which are socially constructed and are
attributed exclusively to humans. Leyens et al drew on this distinction to
explore the type of emotions that people attribute to in-group and outgroup. In a series of mostly experimental studies (Gaunt et al. 2002, Leyens
et al. 2001, Paladino et al. 2002), they found that people associated more
primary rather than secondary emotions with out-groups, while they attributed more secondary than primary emotions to their in-group. They called
this phenomenon infrahumanisation or lesser perceived humanity of the
out-group, meaning that out-groups are perceived as less human than the
in-group. Contrary to ontologisation, infra-humanisation through the differential attribution of emotions is not contingent on a history of failed assimilation and conversion, and is supposed to happen with all out-groups,
regardless of their relationship with the in-group.
Despite this crucial difference, however, the two concepts (ontologisation and infra-humanisation) are close in the sense that they describe a
process of denying humanity to social groups based on the distinction between nature and culture. In that sense, it can be hypothesised that a generally devalued group such as the Gypsies will be both ontologised and infrahumanised. If this is the case, despite their difference, the two concepts
describe similar phenomena of dehumanisation. This is precisely what the
present study sought to explore.
Moreover, the present study undertook to investigate the Gypsy minority in Britain and in Romania in order to examine the influence of different
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histories on the discrimination of Gypsies. While in Britain the Gypsies are
a very small minority, in Romania they constitute an estimated ten percent
of the population. Equally, a cross-cultural in a Western European and an
Eastern European country study would counterbalance any possible Western European bias in the data on the dehumanisation of the Gypsies.
In particular, the present research proposed to investigate whether ethnic majorities, British and Romanian, or the Gypsies, would be ascribed
more cultural, or human-like, or more natural, or animal-like, characteristics2, in line with the thesis of ontologisation and whether they would be
attributed more primary or more secondary emotions, in line with the concept of infrahumanisation.
Firstly, it was expected that more natural characteristics would be attributed to the Gypsies than to the ethnic in-group, whereas more cultural
characteristics would be assigned to the in-group than to the Gypsies, and
that the Gyspies would be attributed more natural than cultural characteristics. Secondly, it was hypothesised that more secondary emotions would be
attributed to the in-group than to the Gypsies, and that the Gypsies will be
attributed more primary than secondary emotions. These hypotheses were
expected to occur regardless of the nationality of the participants.
Method
Pilot study
Initially a pilot study was carried out in Britain among 56 undergraduate psychology students. Half of them were asked to name 20 characteristics typical of humans and not of animals, 10 positive and 10 negative, while the other half were requested to name 20 characteristics typical of animals and not of humans, 10 positive and 10 negative. The most frequently
mentioned characteristics were subsequently selected and included in the
main study: 5 positive human (friendly, compassionate, intelligent, loyal,
creative) 5 negative human (selfish, greedy, untruthful, prejudiced, cruel), 5
positive animal (free, self-sufficient, unsophisticated, adaptable, groupbehaviour), and 5 negative animal (wild, noisy, dirty, aggressive, dependent).
For practical reasons, no pilot study was carried out in Romania.
However, a post-hoc study undertaken with 37 Romanian participants validated the results of the pilot study. The participants were requested to rate
the 20 characteristics as either human or animal. A t-test indicated a significant difference between the human characteristics rated as human (M =
Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of...
47
8.24, SD = 1.51) and the human characteristics rated as animal (M = 3.29,
SD = 1.57), with t (36) = 33.06, p < 0.001. Another t-test revealed a significant difference between the animal characteristics rated as animal (M =
6.70, SD = 1.68) and the animal characteristics rated as human (M = 5.40,
SD = 2.52), with t (36) = 24.25, p < 0.001.
The 37 Romanian participants were also asked to rate the 20 characteristics on positivity and negativity. Their ratings coincided with the British
participants’ ratings, with the exception of unsophisticated, which was rated negative by the Romanians. In addition, the Romanians were not clear
as to whether cruel and loyal were typically human and whether selfsufficient and dependent were typically animal characteristics. Therefore
these attributes were retrieved from the analysis.
Participants
One hundred and fifty students, 73 British and 77 Romanian participated in the study. Of the British sample, 13 were male and 62, female,
with ages ranging from 18 to 50, M = 21.21, SD = 5.46, Median = 19. Of
the Romanian sample, 19 were male and 57, female, with one data missing.
Their ages ranged from 19 to 29, M = 21.82, SD = 1.66, Median = 21. All
participants were British and Romanian citizens, respectively, and no participants belonged to the Gypsy minority.
Procedure
Each participant responded to a questionnaire asking them to attribute a
range of emotions and a range of attributes to their respective in-group,
British or Romanian, respectively, and to the Gypsies. The emotions had
been selected to represent primary (joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, protectiveness) and secondary emotions (affection, pride, admiration,
remorse, conceit, nostalgia and rancour), as in Leyens et al 20013, while the
attributes had been selected following a pilot study to represent either characteristics that were particularly human or characteristics that were shared
by humans and animals (see pilot above). The valence of the emotions and
of the attributes had also been checked in the pilot.
It was found that the British evaluated more positively the secondary
emotions (m=2.99) than did the Romanians (m=2.81) t (72) = 2.12, p<.05.
Also in general for the British both the primary (m=3.14) and the secondary
(m=3.32) emotions were judged as more important for people in their country than for the Romanians (primary m=2.81; secondary m=2.96; primary t
(72) = 2.86, p<.01; secondary t (72) = 2.95, p<.01.
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Results
Results are organised in two sections: ontologisation, and infrahumanisation.
Ontologisation
The 2(nationality: British/Romanians) x 4(attributes: culture to ingroup/ culture to out-group/ nature to in-group/ nature to out-group)
ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor yielded a significant
main effect of attributes, F(3-444) = 115.29, p<.001 and a significant interaction between attributes and nationality, F(3-444) = 6.73, p<.001 (Multivariate tests attributes F(2-147) = 156.7, p<.001, and attributes by nationality F(2-147) = 6, p<.01). In this case the effect of nationality was not significant (see table 1 for means and standards deviations).
Table 1
Means (and standard deviations) of the attribution of characteristics
Cult/
ingroup
Cult/
Gypsies
Nat/
ingroup
Nat/
Gypsies
Total
British
.24 (.19)
.17 (.17)
.21 (.16)
.48 (.20)
.27 (.14 )
Romanians
.44 (.17)
.21 (.17)
.25 (.14)
.56 (.20)
.36 (.14 )
Total
.34 (.21)
.19 (.17)
.23 (.15)
.51 (.20)
Note. One-way ANOVAs revealed that the British and the Romanians differed on the attribution of characteristics relating to culture when attributed to the in-group: culture in-group
F(1-148)= 45.13, p<.001, and to nature when attributed to the Gypsies: nature to Gypsies
F(1-148)= 5.64, p<.01, with Romanians assigning to their in-group more attributes relating
to culture and more attributes relating to nature to the Gypsies than their British counterparts.
Further (see table 1 and figure 1), paired sample t-tests showed that the
British did not assign differently attributes relating to nature and culture to
their in-group. However, they followed the pattern expected by ontologisation as they ascribed more attributes relating to culture to the in-group than
to the Gypsies, t (72) = 3.24, p<.01, less attributes relating to nature to the
in-group than to the Gypsies, t (72) = -9.40, p<.001, and more attributes
relating to nature than attributes relating to culture to the Gypsies, t (72) =
14.11, p<.001.
Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of...
49
Figure 1
Attribution of cultural and natural characteristics to the in-group and to Gypsies by
the British and the Romanians
,6
,5
,4
,3
TRAITS
culture ingroup
,2
culture gypsies
nature ingroup
nature gypsies
,1
British
Romanian
With the Romanians, all differences were significant in the direction
expected by ontologisation (see table 1 and figure 1). They ascribed more
attributes relating to culture to the in-group than to the Gypsies, t (76) =
9.30, p<.001, less attributes relating to nature to the in-group than to the
Gypsies, t (76) = 12.55, p<.001, more attributes relating to nature than attributes relating to culture to the Gypsies, t (76) = -12.74, p<.001, and more
attributes relating to culture than to nature to the in-group, t (76) = 8.75,
p<.001.
Thus, from these results it can be safely concluded that both national
majorities ontologise the Gypsies in line with the first hypothesis.
Infrahumanisation
The 2(nationality: British/Romanians) x 4(emotions: primary to ingroup/ primary to outgroup/ secondary to ingroup/ secondary to outgroup)
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Psicología Política, Nº 30, Mayo 2005
anova with repeated measures on the last factor yielded a significant main
effect of emotions F(2.46-364.04 Greenhouse–Geisser correction) = 4.90,
p<.01 and a significant interaction between emotions and nationality
F(2.46-363.04 Greenhouse–Geisser correction) = 13.42, p<.001 (Multivariate tests emotions F(3-146)=4.40, p<.01 and emotions by nationality F(3146) = 14.47, p<.001). However, the effect of nationality was not significant (see table 2 for details about the means and standard deviations).
Table 2
Means (and standard deviations) of the attribution of Emotions
Primary/
ingroup
Primary/
Gypsies
Secondary
/ingroup
Secondary/
Gypsies
Total
British
1.76 (.89)
2.41 (.98)
2.41 (.83)
1.59 (.76)
2.04 (.04)
Romanians
2.02 (.79)
1.98 (.86)
2.01 (.98)
2.29 (.79)
2.08 (.04)
Total
1.9 (.85)
2.19 (.95)
2.20 (.93)
1.95 (.85)
Further (see table 2 and figure 2), paired sample t-tests showed that the
British followed the pattern expected by infrahumanisation as they attributed less primary emotions to the in-group than to the Gypsies, t (72) =4.65, p<.001, more secondary emotions to the in-group than the to the Gypsies, t (72) = 6.99, p<.001, more primary emotions than secondary emotions
to the Gypsies, t (72) = 5.47, p<.001 and more secondary emotions to the
ingroup than primary emotions, t (72) = 3.7, p<.001.
However, for the Romanians this was not true as the attribution of primary and secondary emotions to the Gypsies approached significance but
the difference was on the opposite direction from the one expected, i.e.
more secondary than primary emotions were attributed to the Gypsies t (76)
= -1.92, p=.06. Moreover, the crucial attribution of secondary emotions
between ingroup and Gypsies was significant but again in the opposite direction, i.e. more secondary emotions to the outgroup t (76) = -1.99, p=.05.
The results seem to indicate that Gypsies are not infra-humanised by the
Romanians. This contradicts the hypothesis according to which both national groups will infra-humanise the Gypsies.
Exclusion of ethnic groups from the realm of...
51
Figure 2
Attribution of primary and secondary emotions to in-group and to the Gypsies by
the British and the Romanians
2,6
2,4
2,2
2,0
1,8
primary ingroup
primary gypsies
1,6
secondary ingroup
secondary gypsies
1,4
British
Romanian
Discussion
The present study examined the ontologisation and infrahumanisation
of the Gypsy minority by the British and the Romanian majorities. The
findings supported all three hypotheses relating to the thesis of ontologisation, in both national samples: more cultural characteristics were attributed
to in-group than to the Gypsies, more natural characteristics were assigned
to the Gypsies than to the in-group, and more natural than cultural characteristics were attributed to the Gypsies. These results therefore suggest that
the ontologisation of the Gypsies occurs in both Britain and Romania, and,
taking into account the previous research on the ontologisation of Gypsies
in Spain, it could be argued that the ontologisation of Gypsies seems to
constitute a pan-European phenomenon. It could be said that this apparent
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cross-cultural dehumanisation of the Gypsies may function as a common
marker for cultural identity, as Pérez and his colleagues suggest, or may
reflect the low social status that the Gypsy minority has across European
countries.
Regarding infrahumanisation, the hypothesis according to which more
secondary emotions would be attributed to in-group than to out-group was
supported only for the British participants, as they attributed significantly
more secondary emotions to their in-group than to the Gypsies. However,
in the case of the Romanian participants, the hypothesis was not supported,
as the Romanians did not attribute significantly more secondary emotions
to their in-group than to the Gypsies. Similarly, the hypothesis according to
which the out-group would be attributed more primary than secondary
emotions was only supported by the British participants, who assigned more primary than secondary emotions to the Gypsies. By contrast, the Romanian participants attributed the Gypsies more secondary than primary emotions, thus failing to support the hypothesis.
We have no explanation for the present findings which only partially
support the theory of infrahumanisation. The results seem to suggest that
the Gypsies are infrahumanised by the British, but not by the Romanians.
Consequently the present findings somewhat beg the question about the
universality of the process of infrahumanisation, and to a certain extent
challenge the assumption of infrahumanisation as a good indicator of
dehumanisation. Furthermore, given that the Romanians in this study ontologised the Gypsies the absence of infrahumanisation from their part raises
the question concerning the relation between ontologisation and infrahumanisation.
Although, only speculations can be advanced at this stage, a suggestion
can be made concerning the relation of these two concepts. Although, the
post-hoc tests showed that both the British and the Romanian participants
culturally valued the secondary emotions significantly more than the primary ones, they also indicated that the British rated the secondary emotions
significantly more positively than did the Romanians. It could therefore be
argued that the British are treating the emotions as a more valuable resource than the Romanians and they reserve them for their own group. If in
the Western world being human is constructed in contrast to the animal
then the characteristics believed as being uniquely human are more positively valued (irrespective of their particular evaluative content). Thus,
these characteristics will be reserved to the ingroup in the same sense that
even negatively evaluated attributes that are, however, linked with agentic
state or with high status groups are associated to the in-group (Glick and
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Fiske 2001). In this sense, the process of infrahumanisation consists in denying valued symbolic resources (this time not cognitive but emotional) to
an out-group. The fact that human-like emotions are denied to the outgroup shows, perhaps, that animals, as a devalued out-group, are used to
delegitimise other out-groups, as was the case with the use of the attribute
Jew in Italy to characterise other groups (Volpato and Durante 2003). In
that sense, infrahumanisation, following an unequal distribution of emotions, is not based necessarily on an essentialisation of the social group but
constitutes the expression of an evaluative prejudice.
This view of infra-humanisation does not deny the importance of the
antithesis Nature/Culture in Western common sense. On the contrary it
shows how much the identity of the human category is based on its differentiation from its natural aspects. However, conceptualising infra-humanisation as an expression of evaluative prejudice could allow, perhaps, for
results such as the ones displayed by the Romanians here who ontologised
the Gypsies but do not infra-humanised them.
In the present research we started with the idea that ontologisation and
infra-humanisation are different aspects of the same process of dehumanisation. The results of our Romanian sample cast some doubts. Why would
the same people be ready to attribute more animal-like traits than humanlike traits to Gypsies but not more primary (animal-like) than secondary
(human-like) emotions? Perhaps the answer is to be found in a closer examination of the concept of ontologisation and the semantic qualities of the
attributes.
In this study, following the literature, people were asked during a pilot
study to produce attributes either typically human or typically animal. The
attributes retained were friendly, compassionate, intelligent, creative, greedy, selfish untruthful and prejudiced for humans and free, unsophisticated,
adaptable, group-behaviour, wild, noisy, dirty and aggressive for the animal. However, if for methodological reasons people were asked to produce
these attributes in relation to humans and animals, the phenomenon of ontologisation is not based on this distinction but on the opposition between
nature and culture. As discussed earlier nature is considered the primitive
condition before human society (Williams, 1988), and culture begins at the
point at which humans surpass their natural inheritance (Edgar and Sedgwick, 1999) and where the wild is domesticated (Strathern, 1980). If we
look closely at the attributes produced spontaneously by the participants we
could see that their content reflects this division. From one part we have the
free from societal constrains, wild, noisy and dirty being that reacts instinctively (aggressive, unsophisticated), lives as an aggregate (group beha-
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Psicología Política, Nº 30, Mayo 2005
viour) and passively adapts itself (adaptable) to the situations. This representation characterises the primitive state of nature. On the other hand, we
have the intelligent and creative being that, with these qualities, domesticates its natural instincts and the natural forces; it constructs artefacts and
can be friendly and compassionate but also selfish and greedy, prejudiced
and untruthful. These are relational qualities that arise in a societal organised condition. One could see the “division of the individual in what is
constrain, forbidden, civilised and what corresponds to the spontaneity, the
pleasure, and the indomitable force of the affective impulses” (Moscovici
1994: 25). According to Moscovici (1994: 29) the rupture between nature
and society is to be found in the “amalgam between the individual, the
animal, the instinct and the collective from one part and the human, the
reason and the law on the other”. The former corresponds at the absence of
order and differentiation and is threatening whereas the latter represents
societal organisation and distinction.
Humans, in the Western thought (both common and scientific) are expected to surpass the natural collective characterised by anarchy and to
evolve towards a societal collective viewed both as constrain and as an
accomplishment. Thus, those, as the Gypsies, that were not able to integrate
more complex forms of organisation belong to a separate ontology. Their
ontological status facilitates their exclusion, their discrimination and even
their extermination.
Of course, the results presented here can only be a starting point for
discussing these ideas. The present research is, in our knowledge, the first
were the infra-humanisation of an outgroup did not occur. More research is
needed to clarify the conditions under which the phenomenon is absent. In
particular, more research is needed in order to clarify the relation between
ontologisation and infra-humanisation. A first path to follow might be the
one suggested here, namely to investigate whether infra-humanisation is
part of a process of evaluative prejudice based on the use of the animals as
a devalued outgroup to delegitimise other groups and whether ontologisation constitutes the outcome of a process of classification organised by the
antithesis between nature and culture.
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Notes
1
Regarding the concepts of civis and ordu, please refer to the article in The Guardian regarding the Gypsies: Acceptable hatred: Beneath the enduring hostility to Gypsies lies an
ancient envy of the nomadic life. George Monbiot, Tuesday November 4, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1077154,00.html
2
Here, natural attributes are those shared by animals and humans, whereas cultural attributes are uniquely humans.
3
Following the post-hoc study where participants in both countries were asked to judge the
emotions in relation to whether they were typically human or animal, it was found that
affection, although considered by Leyens et al. a secondary emotion was judged as a primary
emotion. In addition although disgust was considered in the literature as a primary emotion,
participants rated it as a secondary one. Thus, these two emotions did not take part in the
analysis.
Afrodita Marcu obtained her MSc in Social Psychology from the University of
Surrey, Guildford, in 2003. She is interested in how multicultural societies deal
with cultural diversity and the potential conflict brought about by cultural and
economic differences between majority and minorities. Her research interests
include prejudice against ethnic minorities, and the social psychological processes
involved in the delegitimization and dehumanization of ethnic minorities, immigrants, and refugees. [email protected]
Xenia Chryssochoou is an associate professor at Panteion University in Athens,
2003. She has worked in France as an associate lecturer at the universities of Lille
and Paris and the Institute for Teacher Training in Reims and as lecturer at the
University of Surrey. Her research interests include: the social psychological
processes of mobility and migration in modern societies, justice issues and resource allocation between different groups especially in the context of intergroup
conflict. She has published a book on Cultural Diversity. Its social Psychology,
2004. [email protected]
Address. A Marcu Department of Psychology, School of Human Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, England